Jade Jordan: 'I was trying to wash my colour off me; trying to wash myself white'
Jade Jordan. Photograph Moya Nolan
My book, Nanny, Ma & Me started its journey in 2020. The world had come to a halt and I sat in lockdown like everybody else and wondered what exactly I would do with my time. In the months prior to lockdown I had begun documenting my family history, asking my nanny and ma questions, probing their pasts. I’m a Black Irish woman, the daughter of another Black Irish woman who struggled for a long time because of her skin colour.
I’m the granddaughter of another woman exposed to the icy winds of society because she loved and married a Black man and had three Black children. The killing of George Floyd and the protests over his murder take place as I’m learning about and documenting my family history. I feel sick, horrified and furious.
